Background of RN Layal, the Kuhaylan Strain, Asil Club and History of the True Arabian Horse

Imported Straight Egyptian Black Stallion, Asil Listed, Kuhaylan Ajous Rodania Strain, Age 11 years, height 15.1hh

*RN Layal is the only solid black stallion ever bred at the Al Rayyan Stud Farm in Qatar. RN Layal was originally given by Sheikh Abdul Aziz to another member of the Al Thani Ruling family, as a gift, at 1 year old.

Here is a link to the Al Rayyan web site ,birthplace of *RN Layal, please copy and paste into your browser:

http://www.alrayyanfarm.com

Here is some information on the Kuhaylan strain;

Kuhaylan type horses appear muscular, compact, and of symmetrical, rounded outlines. Their silhouettes tend to flow from head to tail. They are deep in the chest and broad from the front and rear views. The back seems very strong with the body being deep. The muscles seem round and distinct, the gaskins and forearms are broad and strong. Angles in the quarters are relatively closed. Head carriage is moderately high, and the body and neck do not appear long.

In general no one feature stands out as prominent over others. The head has very detailed facial features (prominent veins, tear bones, wrinkled skin,
etc.) with extremely broad forehead and great width between the eyes and jaws, very large eyes. Ears seem relatively small.

Their disposition is gentle and kind. Kuhaylans combine beauty and muscular strength, and make excellent all-around saddle horses.

In Sheykh Obeyd bloodlines tail-female Kuhaylan families include: the strain Kuhaylan-Ajuz Rodan, root mare Rodania (1869 desert bred, D.B., imported by the Blunts); and the strain Kuhaylan-Jallabi, root mare Jellabiet Feysul (ca. 1842 D.B. imported by Abbas Pasha).

The writer Carl Raswan believed there were three basic strains that were also accompanied by a distinct physical type of horse. Kuhaylans were heavier in muscling, wide- chested and masculine of appearance, appearing more like a Morgan or even a Quarter Horse (this included the mares).

His concept for the Seqlawi was a slimmer, more elegant horse with a narrower head, which he later compared to be more like an American Saddlebred. His description of a typical horse of the Maneghi strain was a taller animal, coarser in appearance, resembling the Thoroughbred in looks and speed.

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The ASIL Club Definition and Membership

The Asil Club is an international association for the preservation and rearing of the Asil Arabian Horse.

The Asil Club defines its binding breeding objective as follows:

The ASIL ARABIAN is a horse whose pedigree is exclusively based on Bedouin breeding of the Arabian peninsula, without any crossbreeding with non-Arabian horses at any time. The word “asil” (Arabic, pronounced: asseel) means pure, true, noble and genuine.

The ASIL ARABIAN horse should have the riding qualities and the characteristics of type which distinguish the desert Arabian.

The ASIL CLUB particularly promotes the ancient breeding traditions of the Bedouins, and in guards the asil blood lines as to foster and preserve with utmost care the outstanding qualities of the Arabian horse.

The ASIL CLUB strives to maintain or establish friendly relations with Arab countries as well as with their diplomatic representatives and the League of Arab Nations.

The members’ assembly decides on the admission of new members to the Asil Club.

Horses owned by members of the Asil Club may be recognized as Asil Arabians and entered into the stock list of the Asil Arabian Documentation under the following conditions:

1. Their parents must be registered in the stock list of the Asil Club.

2. All other horses must be registered in a stud book recognized by the World Arabian Horse Organisation (WAHO) or be worthy of such registration,
trace back directly to the Arabia Deserta or correspond in every line of their pedigrees with the breeding program of the EA0 or of private studs controlled by this organization (With the exception of the descendants of the horses Registan (Skowronek/Riz), Sharkasi and Ibn Galabawi.),
display the distinct type of conformation and the riding qualities of the desertbred Arabian.

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The Asil Club welcomes all individuals who identify with the goals of the Club as formulated in this book, and especially in the definition, and who are prepared to realize them through co-operative effort.

Office:
Asil Club e. V.
Hagentorwall 7
D-31134 Hildesheim, Germany

The Asil Club was founded in 1974 and entered into the Vereinsregister (Official Register of Associations) at Amtsgericht (District Court) Hildesheim on 8th June 1990 under registration no. 1636.

The Asil Club will put a special pedigree for Asil Arabians with registration number at the disposal of its members. This pedigree, designed by Professor Paul König, is proof that the horse in question has been recognised by the Asil Club; it is on no account intended to replace the pedigree of the national stud book. It can be made out in English or in Arabic. Membership in the ASIL CLUB entails the permission to use the Asil Club logo in appropriate measures of advertising.

Note:
Asil: The term used by the Bedouins for themselves. Today, in international usage, it means “of pure race, genuine, noble”, and it replaces the word ‘atiq (noble), which was the word originally used in Arab terminology.

Additionally, the following must be noted:
The term “Asil” Arabian is today no longer identical with the terms “pure-bred” Arabian, Arabian, and Arabian horse, because internationally the original definition of purity - a pure-bred Arabian is a horse that must trace all of its ancestors to the Bedouin breeding of the Arabian peninsula - cannot be maintained due to the crossbreeding with other breeds. In order to characterize the Asil Arabians (less than 2 % of all horses accepted internationally as pure-bred Arabians) and to safeguard them in the interests of their preservation, we now use the term “Asil Arabian”.


Asil Club e.V. - Hagentorwall 7 - 31134 Hildesheim - Germany
Textsource: Asil Arabians V - The noble arabian horses (Olms Verlag 2000)
Textquelle: Asil Araber V - Arabiens edle Pferde (Olms Verlag 2000)

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THE ASIL ARABIAN - Believe it or not!

The reports about the nature and performance of the Arabian horse often cause amazement. Whether they come to us as anecdotes, legends or personal experiences, they all agree on one thing – that the Arabian horse is a pearl of creation, that it is something unique. We have the Bedouin to thank for this outstanding breeding success.

When the Arabs sing the praises of this wonderful creature they do so with great artistry. The elegance and quick-wittedness of the rhetorical talents of the Bedouin are as outstanding as their incredible memory.

We know that the day to day work was carried out by women and slaves. The men chatted, discussed, recited, and argued, day in, day out, in their tents and whilst on the way with their camels. Thus they trained their memory and acquired an eloquence that knows no equal.

The classics of Arabian literature, the songs, the world of fairytales and legends, the poems about heroes and weddings, were the subjects of conversation, as were the genealogy of the tribe, the horses, and the camels, the experiences of the hunt with falcons and salukis, and of the ghazus (raids). This daily communication within the social group lent a transparency to their whole existence. Nothing remained secret, and each individual avoided dishonourable behaviour. The absolute truth, especially with regard to the origins of their treasured horses and camels, which formed the basis of their existence, was as compellingly demanded as was the keeping of traditions of hospitality.

The law of the desert had to be observed if one did not want to be shut out of the community, and without this community there was little chance of survival in the Arabian Desert.

Thus the following, often amazing, stories could be inserted in the other, themed, chapters since they are always based on facts, or at least have a truthful core. Or as Reich-Ranicki would say: “They are often unlikely, but always true.”
W. Georg Olms (1999)


W. Georg Olms (1999)

No other horse is as able to cope with strenuous situations as the Arabian. Of 187,700 horses in Napoleon’s cavalry and artillery, being of various breeds, only 1,600 survived the unending stresses of the Russian Winter Campaign. And those were the Arabians.

According to the report of Stud Master Dr. W. Cranz, King Wilhelm II of Württemberg was so struck by the unbelievable performance of the Arabian horses during Napoleon’s Russian Campaign and therefore urged the foundation of the Royal Stud at Weil.


J. L. Burckhardt (1831)

A troop of Druses on horseback attacked, in the summer of 1815, a party of Bedouins in Hauran, and drove them into their encampment, where they were in turn assailed by a superior force, and all killed except one man, who fled.

He was pursued by several of the best mounted Bedouins; but his mare, although fatigued, continued her speed for several hours, and could not be overtaken. Before his pursuers gave up the chase they cried out to him, promising quarter and safe conduct, and begging that he would allow them to kiss the forehead of his excellent mare.

Upon his refusal, they desisted from pursuing, and, blessing the generous creature, they exclaimed, addressing her owner, “Go and wash the feet of your mare, and drink up the water.” This expression is used by the Bedouins to show their great love for such mares, and their sense of services, which they have rendered.


A. Mazoillier (1853)

Another proof of the mutual attachment of the Arab and his horse is shown by an event, which occurred during the same war. One of the most important virtues of a pure-bred horse is known to be the fact that he stops instantaneously when his rider falls and that he will bring him back to his tribe if he stays in the saddle but is injured or dead.

In this war, a Wahabi warrior was seriously wounded and fell from his horse, but was trapped by one foot in the stirrup. Immediately his mare went down flat on her belly so as to disengage his foot, then seized his belt in her teeth and carried him back to his tribe. This story has been confirmed to me by several witnesses.


Count W. Rzewusky (about 1820)

The Kohlan (Kuhaylan) distinguishes itself amongst all the horses of the world by its attributes as well as by its shape. It is very devoted and faithful to his master, it has great courage, is admirably intrepid and has an excellent memory for the place it has been and treatment it has experienced. It is unapproachable to everyone except its master and does not lose track of the direction it came from even in the most violent skirmishes.

As long as its strength does not fail it, it will snatch its master from danger when fatally wounded itself and return him to his own people.

It possesses great intelligence, and without doubt notices if it is to be sold, and if its price is being negotiated. When the owner and the potential buyer enter the stable to do their deal there, it goes as far as suspecting this, looking at them talking, becoming restless and scraping the ground to show its discontent. The buyer, like any other stranger, hardly dares to go near it. If the deal is done, however, the seller then takes the Kohlan by the halter and hands it over with a piece of salted bread (a way of bidding it farewell and recognizing the rights of its new master).

The seller leaves immediately, and from that moment on, one can see this headstrong animal being meek, obedient and devoted toward its new owner, whom it would have trampled a moment earlier.

This is not a fairy-tale. I was witness to it on several occasions, in the years 1810 and 1811, when I bought three Kohlan from Turkish prisoners and the exact same thing confronted me during a deal in the stable. I took charge, with my own hands, of those horses, which I had not approached before the ceremony. I have heard the same thing from all Turks, Arabs and prisoners and also from a number of rich Armenian merchants who deal with horses and from time to time buy them on the spot.


Mazen Amawi (1999)

Al-Haggag Ibn Yusuf, appointed governor of Ummaiyaden, Iraq, in the years 694-714 AD., had the task to reinstate order and peace in the province, which had been shaken by sectarian violence and revolt.

On his first day in office, he called the people together and gave an imposing address. As the necessary level of respect was not granted to him – in fact they threw continuously pine cones at him – he had his troops arrest hundreds of those present and beheaded them on the same day. Through this gruesome course of action he brought peace and order to the province at once.

One day, when he was riding through the desert, he met a Bedouin, who rode with him for a while. They talked for a little while, and when Al-Haggag was sure that the Bedouin did not recognise him, he took the opportunity to find out what the people thought of him:

"What do they say about Al-Haggag, our new governor?" he asked.

The Bedouin shouted angrily: "You call this devil governor! This cursed criminal, this devastator, … may the most terrible death befall him! Allah let his soul burn in hell for eternity!"

Al-Haggag could only control himself with the greatest difficulty, he glowered at the Bedouin and interrupted his diatribe:

"Do you know who you are talking to?"

The Bedouin answered: "How could I? We have only just met."

Al-Haggag expected the man to be struck dumb with horror as he said: "I am Al-Haggag Ibn Yusuf!"

The Bedouin caught his breath for a moment, but then said with a friendly smile: "But brother, please keep this to yourself!"

Some time later Al-Haggag held a special banquet. Among the guests, there also was a simple Bedouin. All sat around the appetising spread of food, which was so well decorated that they could only be amazed. In the middle of the table was a tiny, particularly tasty looking snack. It magically captured the gaze of the hungry guests, and that of the Bedouin, as well. Any of them would have loved to grab it.

Al-Haggag, who had planned the whole scene and was watching it carefully, said laconically: "Whoever grabs the snack will loose his head".

Then guests were afraid and remained silent, consoling themselves with other pieces of food. The Bedouin, however, looked at Al-Haggag, then at the tempting snack, then again at Al-Haggag, then again at the snack.

Before he finally pulled up his sleeve, he said to Al-Haggag: "Great prince! You will look after my family, won’t you?" And so he grabbed the snack and put it in his mouth. Al-Haggag had to laugh and spared him the execution.


W. G. Olms (1985)

The extent to which even today leading personalities in the Gulf states value the Arabian horse as highly as ancient poetry, was shown to me during my visit with H. R. H. Prince Badr Ben Abdul Aziz, Vice President of the National Guard and of the Equestrian Club. After a long discussion about the problems of breeding Arabians, H. R. H. Prince Badr asked me if I knew the story of the blind Bedouin sheikh who, with the help of his son, searched for a long time in vain for the ideal Arabian mare and was never satisfied with his son’s descriptions until, one day, he found her.

I said that I did not know it, whereupon H. R. H. Prince Badr recited to me the words of praise with which the son described a mare to his father:

“The expression in her eyes is that of a woman in love; her gait is that of a beautiful woman; her breast is like that of a lion; her flanks are like those of a gazelle. She is a drinker of the wind; she trots like a wolf and gallops like a fox; her coat is like a mirror; her hair is as dense as the feathers on an eagle’s wing, and her hoof as hard as the stone which can strike fire, and just wide enough for a mouse to build a nest inside; she is as gentle as a lamb, but like a panther in wrath if she is beaten or irritated. Her nostrils are open like the petals of a rose. Her shoulders turn into wings when she runs. Her legs are strong like those of the wild ostrich and muscled like those of a camel. Her eyelashes are as long as ears of barley, and her ears like those of two semi-precious stones on a spearhead!”

Thereupon the blind sheikh said: ”My son, this is the mare I have been searching for all this time. You will do everything you must to obtain her.”


Springfield (1847)

One of the most signal instances of courage on the part of the horse and rider, and of perfect concert between both, is that recorded of the late Sir Robert Gillespie and his Arab.

Sir Robert being present on the race course of Calcutta during one of the great Hindoo festivals, when many thousands are assembled to witness all sorts of shows, was suddenly alarmed by the shrieks and commotion of the crowd. On being informed that a tiger had escaped from his keepers, he immediately called for his horse, and, with no other weapon than a boarspear snatched from one of the by-standers, he rode to attack this formidable enemy.

The tiger was probably amazed at finding himself in the middle of such a number of shrieking beings flying from him in all directions; but the moment he perceived Sir Robert, he crouched in the attitude of preparing to spring upon him; and that instant the gallant soldier passed his horse in a leap over tiger’s back, and struck the spear through his spine.

It was a feat requiring the utmost conceivable unity of purpose on the part of horse and rider, almost realizing for the moment the fable of the centaur. Had either swerved or wavered for a moment both had been lost. But the brave steed knew his rider. The animal was a small grey, and was afterwards sent home as a present to the Prince Regent.


E. Schiele (1982)

Before he takes a look at a horse, the Bedouin asks for his pedigree, and if he does not like it, he does not even look at the animal.


H. v. Moltke (1835-39)

This evening Kjerwan-Bashi told me an anecdote which is characteristic of an Arabian; I had heard it before at Orfa.

A Turkish general of the cavalry, Dano-Pasha at Mardin, had long been carrying on negotiations with an Arabian tribe on behalf of a fine mare of the Meneghi breed; finally a price of 60 bags, equivalent to 30 000 piasters, was agreed upon. At the fixed hour the chief of the tribe arrived at the Pasha’s courtyard with his mare.

The Pasha tried to haggle again, but the sheikh proudly replied that he would not reduce the price by one single para. Morosely the Turk flung the sum to him remarking that 30 000 piasters for a horse was a price unheard of.

The Arabian looked at him in silence and quietly tied the money into his white coat. Then he climbed down into the courtyard to say goodbye to his mare: he talked to her in Arabic, stroked her forehead and her eyes, examined her hooves, and while the animal stood attentively, he went round her slowly and inquiringly. Suddenly he jumped onto her bare back and the mare instantly shot forward and out of the courtyard.

As a rule the horses here always stand with the palan or felt saddle on their backs. Every noble man has at least one or two horses ready in his stable so that they only have to be bridled to be ridden. The Arabians, however, need no bridle at all; the halter rope is enough to stop the horse, a slight touch of the flat hand at the right or left side of the necks shows the horse in which direction to go. So within a few moments the Agas of the Pasha were in the saddle and went in pursuit of the fugitive.

The bare hoof of the Arabian mare had never touched a stone pavement so she rushed down the steep and rough path from the castle with some caution. The Turks on the other hand gallop down a precipitous slope full of sharp rock as we would gallop up a sand dune. The thin annular shoes, being forged cold, protect the hooves against any injury, and being used to such rides, the horses never make a false step. Where the grounds end, the agas had almost reached the sheikh, but when they were on the flat, the Arabian being in his element, races off straight as here there were neither ditches nor hedges, neither rivers nor hills to hinder his pace.

Like a trained jockey who is in the lead of a race, the sheikh tries to ride not as fast, but as slowly as possible. Looking at his pursuers in regular intervals he keeps at shooting distance of them; he goes faster when they come nearer; he slows down when they fall back; he walks when they stop. In this way the chase goes on until the glowing disc of the sun sinks towards the evening, and only then he asks for all the strength of his mare. Leaning far forward he pushes his heels into the sides of the animal and with a loud “Jallah!” he darts along. The strong hooves thunder on the solid ground, and soon nothing but a cloud of dust shows the pursuers the direction in which the Arabian fled.

Dusk is very short here, where the disc of the sun sinks almost vertically, to the horizon so that the night soon covers any trace of the fugitive. The Turks, without food for themselves or water for their horses, find themselves twelve to fifteen hours away from home in a totally unknown region. They have no choice but to turn back and to convey the unwelcome message to their master, that horse and rider and money were lost. In the evening of the third day they reach Mardin, half dead of exhaustion and hunger, the horses can hardly move at all.

What remains is the sad comfort of scolding at this new example of Arabian perfidy while they cannot but do justice to the mount of the traitor and recognize that such an animal is not easily overpaid for.

The next morning when the Imam called for the early prayer, the Pasha heard hooves clattering beneath his windows; it was the sheikh who quite innocently rode into the courtyard.

“Sidi!” he called out: “Sir! Do you want your money or my horse?”


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